April 27, 2011

Japanese Animation Studio Gainax ( Gurren Lagann, FLCL, Evangelion ) made a Charity Book to benefit the people who where affected by the earthquake in Japan. Proceeds will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society. Here is a link to the Gainax Charity Book website: http://talkliveanimated.web.fc2.com/

I love Japan and always wanted to visit. I was shocked to see the devestation caused by the earthquakes and tsunami. I was concerned about my friends in Japan and I prayed for their safety. Fortunately, they were fine, but many were affected by the disasters.

Since Gainax has come to visit Pixar, I have remained in contact with them. Gainax immediately wanted to put together a Charity Book. I was asked to be a part of the book. I was honored to be a part of this amazing cause. They told me that the theme of the book was Gurren Lagann and I knew I wanted to draw something that was a mash-up of Gainax and Pixar. So I did this drawing of the Gurren Lagann characters dressed up like superheroes. I also wanted to draw something that was uplifting and to me, superheroes have always been uplifting.

One of the cool things that happened was I was asked to invite some friends to participate in the book, so I asked guys who I knew loved Gainax and it sort of became a mini Avatar the Last Airbender reunion. Its cool because we are all split in different studios, Pixar, Nickelodeon and Warner Brothers. Here is a list of the guys who participated: Dean Kelly, Grant Alexander, Kenji Ono, Kihyun Ryu, Lauren Montgomery, Michael Chang, Seung-Hyun Oh, Bryan Konietzko, Elsa Garagarza, Ethan Spaulding, Ian Graham and Joaquim Dos Santos. I want to thank these guys for helping out!

I will try to get more information on how to get the book in the U.S. In the meantime if you would like to help, please donate to the Red Cross: https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=0&5052.donation=form1&df_id=5052